Murrow Grad. AU Alumnus. Multimedia Pro.

The Verdict: Wasteland Waste of Money

Shortly after the release of the infamous “Horse Armor” DLC for Oblivion in the late 2000’s, Bethesda claimed that they’d learned their lesson. Gone were the days of superfluous and thin post-content releases for their games. Going forth, everything would be substantial, interesting and packed with a lot of fun and interesting things for you, the player to go forth and discover.

And then Wasteland Workshop came along. I picked up the game today and though I am not a member of the press, I was deeply disappointed in what the company offered for me to play.

Releasing tomorrow for those that bought the season pass and as an individual download in the Xbox Store, this latest post-release add on for the thinnest Fallout game released recently adds a handful of cosmetic items to the settlement building system already present in the game. None of them work well. The arena system is absurdly flawed (You place two platforms and guide settlers, creatures or what have you towards them and hope they don’t begin fighting until they get there.), the achievement for having 5 tamed creatures present doesn’t seem to unlock (I had 5 tamed radstags and nothing unlocked.) and you will have to go on an immense grind to build one of every type of cage (There doesn’t seem to be a good spot for a lot of Brahmin meat or soft shell Mirelurk meat). But the worst sin of this content release is its hideous ordinariness.

Nothing bold is added here. A few cosmetic items, a creature catching system and subsequent fighting mechanic does not make an interesting download worth paying money for, at all.

If I were you, I would skip this. Now I know that may be difficult for some of you that like to unlock every achievement in a game, but it’s the only way they’ll learn not to be this lazy.

I wanted to do this review like I did my others, I wanted there to be some good and bad for me to highlight. But alas, there was nothing standout at all, instead, I can only offer you a verdict.

Verdict: Wasteland Workshop is an insulting offering from Bethesda Games. It’s mechanics are poorly designed, it throws in annoying grinds that would be more at place in Destiny or The Division than they would here in the long running Fallout series and most of what’s thrown in is purely cosmetic and could have easily been given away in a free update for the game. If you are not a season pass owner, skip this entry. It’s not worth purchasing even for its low price in comparison to Automatron and Far Harbor. After seeing what the studio had given its fans so far, I can honestly say that I don’t have high hopes for Far Harbor or anything else coming down the pipe. Sure, they say the landmass is large, but knowing them, it’s largely filler and more settlements to grind in order to distract one from the disappointingly underwhelming narrative.